Wikiposts

1) Defending a Grade
What would you do differently than Laura? How can you change the conversation, so it is not only the grade that matters?

2) Writing Process
Describe your process, when you are writing well. It's best to consider a specific writing task, whether your first assignment for Engl 408 or some previous writing task.

3) The Right Question
How do you assess the story "The Right Question"? If this was passed in by a tenth grader, who was asked to tell an important story, how would you respond to the writer? Is it good writing?

4) Writing Partner(s)
What are your initial impressions of your student correspondent's writing? Compare the letter with any writing samples attached. What are the writer's strengths? Weaknesses?

5) Unfamiliar Genre Possibilities: Post to your personal page
6) UFG Annotated Bibliography: Post to your personal page
7) UFG "User's Guide": Post to your personal page

8) The Nature of Error
From Black Quarterbacks in the NFL
“Are black quarterbacks getting enough playing time in the NFL? I think they do, but other people think that white Quarterbacks play a lot more often. I wonder why people think this? It may be a prejudice thing, but I really doubt that, or it’s the coaches that work them hard but don’t put them in until they absolutely need to, or people watch there favorite team on TV or whatever and the Quarterbacks are white.”
Would you consider the underlined passage an example of:
a) developmental error
b) rhetorical error or
c) dialectical error?
What part of the sentence is what kind of error?

9) Grammar vs. Style
Ehrenworth and Vinton, Chapter 1
"So we commit ourselves to teaching voice, which, beyond its more ineffable traits having to do with personality, is composed of word choice, punctuation, and syntax--in another words, partly of grammar. We consider, thus, how grammar matters not only for how it transfers power but for its intrinsic beauty and its revelatory qualities. But how do we convey this to students?" (10)
What does grammar have to do with "beauty"? How does grammar convey a writer's voice or deepest feelings? When does it matter for writers to choose words, punctuation or usage carefully?

10) Punctuation and Voice
"We know that writers capitalize the first word of a new sentence so their readers can clearly recognize that a new sentence is beginning. For the end of the sentence, though, writers have more choice, and the choices they make will affect the tone of their writing. Writers decide whether to use a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point" (23)

On pages 23-23, the authors show that punctuating a sentence is a matter of choice. What determines which choice the writer makes among the period, the question mark, and the exclamation point? How is this different from the way you were taught to use these forms of end punctuation?